Hayatou has a lot to learn, not we Africans. Hayatou is a corrupt megalomaniac and his time is almost up in CAF. Sewale will see to that.

As for Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, he exposed himself and gave a manifestation to all, why it would have been dangerous to make him President. His hubris was titanic, and he sunk like it.

Infantino, who is not clean, if you know anything "Mr got a lot to learn", you should wonder why a man who was accused of match fixing that was covered up by an investigation by a Dept he heads, now heads the so called clean FIFA?

You should ask why a man who always wanted to replace Platini at UEFA is FIFA President when all he has done is just carry on from years of campaigning by Platini.

This is not a win by the unknown Infantino, it is a win by the West, and it is thanks to Blatter's malfeasant FIFA.

The seeds of the West's victory was sown by Blatter and germinated by Hayatou. When Hayatou snubbed Tokyo Sewale's bid for the FIFA presidency, CAF was spilt and the West played on this to win.

The Western nations organised themselves, they knew they had to win allies in Africa due to the challenge of Salman. They also knew they had Prince Ali, but above, all they needed Sewale, they needed to play a game of subterfuge and cover up. They knew they needed Sewale and Ali to play their part to help Infantino win. If you conclude, Infantino got all these votes, in the few months since Platini had been exposed, because he played the right politics himself, then you really have a lot to learn.

Prince Ali's years of being in FIFA mean't he had enough people who were loyal to him, they included some Arab African nations. But his numbers were small and they could not rely on them all to vote for Infantino if Prince Ali dropped out. However, the biggest player Ali had as an ally was Tokyo Sewale. With Tokyo Sewale money (a billionaire) and influence, they both had their plan and worked together with the Europeans. Tokyo Sewale will get a seat in the new FIFA council if he wants it, it is rumoured he has a role but he wants a higher position.

Tokyo Sewale was angry at Hayatou's snub of his bid for Presidency and the Europeans knew it. The Europeans also knew South Africa along with many English speaking African countries were fed up Hayatou. The Europeans also knew a good chunk of Arab African countries will not vote for Salman. Platini knowing Sewale's influence with the South African countries set to work on him, Platini spent a few days with him, Infantino did the same, he even went with him to Robben Island.

The Europeans knew Prince Ali and Tokyo Sewale were never going to win, but in a tight race, they knew African held the balance of power in the election, with Sheikh Salman dominant in Asia and Infantino enjoying strong backing in Europe and the Americas. The Europeans knew it was crucial they had Tokyo Sewale on board, so they made sacrifices. For example, instead of reducing the numbers of countries in the WC, they agreed to expand it, they knew any reduction will force them to lose the most counties participating in the WC as proposed by Sheikh Salman. The Europeans also got lucky, Sexwale and him have always got on, above all, they became friends in the run up to the conference.

Come the Conference, the West were confident enough to make an announcement that Infantino had the backing of more than half of Africa's federations, despite the CAF's support of rival Sheikh Salman. It turns out, it was no ordinary boast because those votes won the Presidency for Infantino, even if it was a tad bit exaggerated. When Sewale stepped down as rumoured, it was over for Salman. First his backers all (rumoured to be more than 20 in number) voted for Prince Ali, in the first ballot. In the second ballot, they all switched and voted Infantino.

Infantino won because he had the votes of the Western nations. With their wealth, know how and experience, they managed to convinced plenty of Africans and a handful of Arabs to vote for him. The key votes were those who supported Tokyo Sewale and Prince Ali, he managed to convinced them to vote on mass for Infantino. Prince Ali has been promised a key role in the new President's team.

Given the fact that we held the balance of power, and if Tokyo Sewale is given a prominent position in the new FIFA council, it means Africa might have a power broker in position to represent our interests. That's the only consolation from this.

FIFA Reform.

The reform package will see many decision-making powers stripped from the president and executive committee, which will be renamed the Fifa Council and will feature a female member from each confederation. There will also be a 12-year term limit and stricter integrity checks for top officials.

The changes include:The separation of powers between the political and business operations of Fifa;An independent audit and compliance committee;A new council to replace the executive committee;Term limits of 12 years for senior members;Publication of executive salaries and accounts.

WHAT'S IN FIFA PRESIDENT'S IN-TRAY?Appoint a new secretary general – or chief executive – to oversee the day-to-day running of the Fifa administration.Continue internal investigation into corruption during the Sepp Blatter regime and take legal action to recoup any lost money.Ensure Fifa fully co-operates with ongoing United States and Swiss criminal inquiries and publish the Garcia report as quickly as possible.Overhaul controversial GOAL development programme to ensure every penny is properly accounted for.Police the implementation of financial transparency reforms – fully audited accounts – at national association level.Devise a strategy to attract new sponsors to the organisation and retain existing ones.Set the timetable for the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup and determine the number of finals places for each confederation.

I cant tell if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me....

You guys forgot one angle to this story..blackmail !!! How come none of the African delegates were arrested or detained ?? We all know a lot of them were on the take... How come no arrests ??

In any case, UEFA had to negotiate stuff in as "give-and-take" because it is clear that they cannot win the Presidency alone. One thing for example is that the more powerful Sec-Gen position is expected to come from outside UEFA. That is a concession. In essence, it is a politics of exchanges. The days of dictatorship are at an end.

2. CAF certainly did not vote as a bloc because there are certainly several interests in CAF. Infantino took some of those because of what he put on the table as an offer.

3. CAF did not necessarily need its own guy running. It would have been good but you need someone that can generate support from outside. CAF leadership did the next best thing i.e. seek a partner but it is only effective if you can get CAF nations to vote as a bloc. Unfortunately, while Asia was attractive because it did NOT represent the "UEFA Oppressor" but Khalifa had little to offer openly. All he had was sort of "wait until I get there." Infantino consulted with Blatter (Confirmed by Sepp) and came up with a campaign that appealed to CAF members (loads of development money). That is what split CAF. Will Infantino fulfill his promises? Not sure.

4. Recall that in previous FIFA election, UEFA wanted Blatter out but did not have its own candidate and instead had agreements with Prince Ali. Thus, having a candidate from your own federation is preferred but not necessary.

Solowe wrote:

Enugu II wrote:

Solowe wrote:

Rawlings wrote:

he won

And I guess Africa lost... We picked the most colorless, even arrogant character to vote for as a block, He did a very poor job... We need to play our politics better..with 53 votes, the largest block, we couldn't swing things.... men thats sad.

Bros,

If Africa voted as a block for Khalifa then I can assure you that Khalifa would have won. The fact, as you will find out, is that a large number of African federations voted for three candidates -- Khalifa, Infantino, & Ali. Take that to the bank. That is the reason why Khalifa did not win.Infantino's offer of more development money to the federations was most attractive to African federations and they made no secret of this going into the vote. Then he promised that the FIFA Sec-Gen ail go to the current CAF Sec-Gen. We shall see.

When you control the things.. whatever it is... You dont have to listen to offers... you are the who is supposed to be offering people things...

_________________The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics

Hayatou has a lot to learn, not we Africans. Hayatou is a corrupt megalomaniac and his time is almost up in CAF. Sewale will see to that.

As for Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, he exposed himself and gave a manifestation to all, why it would have been dangerous to make him President. His hubris was titanic, and he sunk like it.

Infantino, who is not clean, if you know anything "Mr got a lot to learn", you should wonder why a man who was accused of match fixing that was covered up by an investigation by a Dept he heads, now heads the so called clean FIFA?

You should ask why a man who always wanted to replace Platini at UEFA is FIFA President when all he has done is just carry on from years of campaigning by Platini.

This is not a win by the unknown Infantino, it is a win by the West, and it is thanks to Blatter's malfeasant FIFA.

The seeds of the West's victory was sown by Blatter and germinated by Hayatou. When Hayatou snubbed Tokyo Sewale's bid for the FIFA presidency, CAF was spilt and the West played on this to win.

The Western nations organised themselves, they knew they had to win allies in Africa due to the challenge of Salman. They also knew they had Prince Ali, but above, all they needed Sewale, they needed to play a game of subterfuge and cover up. They knew they needed Sewale and Ali to play their part to help Infantino win. If you conclude, Infantino got all these votes, in the few months since Platini had been exposed, because he played the right politics himself, then you really have a lot to learn.

Prince Ali's years of being in FIFA mean't he had enough people who were loyal to him, they included some Arab African nations. But his numbers were small and they could not rely on them all to vote for Infantino if Prince Ali dropped out. However, the biggest player Ali had as an ally was Tokyo Sewale. With Tokyo Sewale money (a billionaire) and influence, they both had their plan and worked together with the Europeans. Tokyo Sewale will get a seat in the new FIFA council if he wants it, it is rumoured he has a role but he wants a higher position.

Tokyo Sewale was angry at Hayatou's snub of his bid for Presidency and the Europeans knew it. The Europeans also knew South Africa along with many English speaking African countries were fed up Hayatou. The Europeans also knew a good chunk of Arab African countries will not vote for Salman. Platini knowing Sewale's influence with the South African countries set to work on him, Platini spent a few days with him, Infantino did the same, he even went with him to Robben Island.

Hayatou has a lot to learn, not we Africans. Hayatou is a corrupt megalomaniac and his time is almost up in CAF. Sewale will see to that.

As for Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, he exposed himself and gave a manifestation to all, why it would have been dangerous to make him President. His hubris was titanic, and he sunk like it.

Infantino, who is not clean, if you know anything "Mr got a lot to learn", you should wonder why a man who was accused of match fixing that was covered up by an investigation by a Dept he heads, now heads the so called clean FIFA?

You should ask why a man who always wanted to replace Platini at UEFA is FIFA President when all he has done is just carry on from years of campaigning by Platini.

This is not a win by the unknown Infantino, it is a win by the West, and it is thanks to Blatter's malfeasant FIFA.

The seeds of the West's victory was sown by Blatter and germinated by Hayatou. When Hayatou snubbed Tokyo Sewale's bid for the FIFA presidency, CAF was spilt and the West played on this to win.

The Western nations organised themselves, they knew they had to win allies in Africa due to the challenge of Salman. They also knew they had Prince Ali, but above, all they needed Sewale, they needed to play a game of subterfuge and cover up. They knew they needed Sewale and Ali to play their part to help Infantino win. If you conclude, Infantino got all these votes, in the few months since Platini had been exposed, because he played the right politics himself, then you really have a lot to learn.

Prince Ali's years of being in FIFA mean't he had enough people who were loyal to him, they included some Arab African nations. But his numbers were small and they could not rely on them all to vote for Infantino if Prince Ali dropped out. However, the biggest player Ali had as an ally was Tokyo Sewale. With Tokyo Sewale money (a billionaire) and influence, they both had their plan and worked together with the Europeans. Tokyo Sewale will get a seat in the new FIFA council if he wants it, it is rumoured he has a role but he wants a higher position.

Tokyo Sewale was angry at Hayatou's snub of his bid for Presidency and the Europeans knew it. The Europeans also knew South Africa along with many English speaking African countries were fed up Hayatou. The Europeans also knew a good chunk of Arab African countries will not vote for Salman. Platini knowing Sewale's influence with the South African countries set to work on him, Platini spent a few days with him, Infantino did the same, he even went with him to Robben Island.

Waffiman,

I think you overstate Sexwale's influence. Yea, he has made money and is still doing so in the mining business. However, the guy was a novice in FIFA campaign planning at this level. In South Africa, SAFA thought of his campaign as lack lustre and he had few behind him. Prince Ali had more support among CAF nations than Sexwale. While several CAF countries resented a few things that Hayatou did, the reality is that Infantino's campaign promises of more funding and more WC places was critical. The question is how much of those promises can Infantino deliver?

_________________The difficulties of statistical thinking describes a puzzling limitation of our mind: our excessive confidence in what we believe we know, and our apparent inability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty of the world we live in. We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events -- Daniel Kahneman (2011), Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics